second chance
by Randomfluffybutterfly
Summary: "'where am I' she could see a small white light in the distance. 'what is that' she stood up and took a step towards the light. she felt a small tug trying to pull her back. She turned around to see a big golden door form out of the darkness." MAJOR SPOILERS! I suggest that you finish the anime before reading if you don't want it spoiled. (L x OC)
1. Chapter 1

**I just randomly came up with this idea last night when I couldn't fall asleep. I searched on around to make sure no one else had already written this story yet and I found some that were slightly similar but not really. I'm kind of surprised. I'll post chapters as I finish them so it will be kind of unpredictable anyways, on with the story!**

 **P.S. I actually cried while writing this**

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prologue

She sat at a computer in the headquarters, typing out everything she knew about the death note and her theories. She found that she could come up with possible motives, suspects and evidence better when the wrote or typed it down first. Just as she was about to finish typing all the computers screens flashed white. At first she thought she had hit the wrong button but then she saw the 'All data deletion' on the screens. 'Oh no' she thought. Everyone started panicking and yelling, but she couldn't focus on anything. She took a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself down a little, it worked just in time to hear someone yell "where's the shinigami?!" 'what!? the shinigami!?' she thought panicked. "I instructed Watari to delete all the data if something unexpected should happen to him" L said. Of course, she already knew this, as she had overheard that conversation quite a while ago. Her head was spinning and she felt dizzy. "everyone, the shiniga-" she heard faintly through all her swirling thoughts. She snapped out of her daze when she heard a soft thud next to her. She turned wide eyed to see L had fallen out of his chair and Light was next to him. "RYUUZAKI!" She screamed, jumping out of her chair and running over to him. She collapsed on the ground next to L as her legs gave way under her. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Light smirk. All of her panic and sadness was replaced by anger. "You..." she said dangerously, glaring at Light. She jumped at him and tried to tackle him but he moved out of the way. She turned around and ran to towards him, throwing kicks and punches at him and screaming, Tears streaming down her face. "IT WAS YOU! YOU KILLED HIM! YOU KILLED MY ONLY FRIEND! YOU KILLED THE ONE PERSO-" her eyes widened as she felt a sharp pain in her chest. She collapsed on the ground and curled into a ball. She felt weak she couldn't move. "you..you killed him, the one person I cared about, the one I..." she choked out her words between sobs and pain. Everything faded into a blur of noise and colors that she couldn't pay attention to. She could hear people yelling but she didn't care anymore. with the last of her energy she finished her sentence in barely a whisper "the one I loved..." She closed her eyes as she felt everything fade away. The sounds, the colors, the pain, the coldness of the floor, all her thoughts, everything. She curled up tighter as she felt empty. She layed there for what felt like forever. She sat up and rubbed the tears out of her eyes. She looked around and saw only darkness. _'what? where am I?'_ she could see a small white light in the distance. _'what is that?'_ she stood up and took a step towards the light. she felt a small tug trying to pull her back. She turned around to see a big golden door form out of the darkness. She felt an invisible force pulling her to the door. She started walking towards the door. As she got closer to the door the pull got weaker. she stopped a step from the door as she remembered the light. She turned around to look at it. It seemed brighter now than before. She glanced at the door one more time before walking towards the light, her curiosity getting the better of her. With every step she took towards the light the pull got stronger, trying to pull her back to the door, but she wouldn't give up. She was stubborn and she wanted to know what the light was. The pull kept getting stronger, it felt like claws digging into her flesh and making her feet heavy and making it difficult to breathe. But still she didn't give up, she had to know what the light was. It felt so close yet so far. She reached out to grab at it. it felt like her arm was on fire, every movement hurt worse than the one before and she felt her legs shaking. She lost her footing and slid back a few feet, but she kept pushing forward. She held her feet firmly to the ground and moved forward slowly. Her hand was inches from the light and she felt as if all her bones were cracking and every part of her felt like it was on fire. She took one last step and grabbed on to the little ball of light. I fit perfectly in her hand. She pulled herself to the light. It's glow got bigger and brighter and the pain and pull disappeared. She felt calm and safe with the light surrounding her. She felt her memories and thoughts and feelings fade away. All she felt was a warm and comforting presence. she heard a soft voice surround her.

 _'you have passed the test_

 _before all the rest_

 _you've earned the chance_

 _to change your history_

 _to rewrite your story_

 _it's time for you to go back_

 _to begin again_

 _your second chance'_


	2. Chapter 2

chapter 1

 **disclaimer: I do not own death note**

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 _'where am I? who am I? is anyone there?'_ she started crying. she felt helpless and she didn't know anything, she was scared. She felt something warm wrap around her and pick her up. _'what is that?'_ she tried to open her eyes but it was too bright so she closed them instantly and started crying louder. "shhh, shhh, it's ok" a voice said.

'what was that?' she stopped crying and tried to open her eyes again. It wasn't as bright this time so she was able to open her eyes. She looked up and saw a woman with blonde hair and brown eyes. A piece of the woman's hair fell in front of her and tickled her nose. She giggled and reached up to try to catch the piece of the woman's hair with her tiny hands. A gentle smile spread across the woman's face as she looked down at the baby. She gave up on trying to catch the woman's hair as she started feeling sleepy. She yawned and closed her eyes.

~time skip~

the little 5 year old girl stood proudly in front of the mirror with her hands on her hips, admiring her work. She was was wearing a pale pink dress and little black sneakers. She had two pigtails with big pink bows. Her hair was the color of vanilla, just like her name, Vanilla Marshmallow Starr. Some people made fun of her weird name but she loved it. Her big honey brown eyes looked over her outfit once more before she ran down the hall to her parent's room as fast as her little legs could carry her. She flung herself onto the bed and started jumping up and down.

"Mama! Papa! get up, get up!" she said with a huge smile. "come on, today's the first day of school! I don't wan't to be late!"

"ok sweetie, just give us a minute" her mom said. Vanilla's smile grew even more as she jumped of the bed and ran down the hall. She slid down the banister of the stairs and ran to the kitchen. she grabbed her lunchbox off the counter and opened it. She opened the refrigerator and picked up a box of apple juice, a ham sandwich and a container of peach yogurt and threw them into the lunchbox just as her Dad come down the stairs. "Papa! I got my lunchbox packed all by myself!" she said proudly.

"oh really?" she nodded enthusiastically. He picked her up and set her on his shoulders.

"yay! piggyback ride!" she giggled as he ran around the room, holding on to her ankles so she wouldn't fall. He stepped on a pile colored pencils that Vanilla had left on the floor. He lost his balance and they flopped onto the couch. "were going down!" Vanilla giggled. "Vanilla" Her Mother called. Vanilla jumped up and ran to the kitchen.

"good morning Mama!" she said.

"I see someone's exited. what would you like for breakfast sweetie?" Vanilla scratched her cheek, a weird habit of hers.

"hmmm, banana chocolate chip pancakes!" she jumped up and down as she said it. "with whipped cream on it too" she added as a second thought. After breakfast she grabbed her backpack, it was just a plain grey color and was a bit too big but Vanilla didn't care. she planned to cover it in stickers and put cute key chains on the zippers when she got the chance. She put her pencil box with crayons and a pencil in her backpack, along with a notepad to draw on and a picture of her and her parents so she could look at it if she got lonely in school. She ran to her room and grabbed her brown cat plushie, Coco. She dug through her closet and pulled out an old Polaroid camera and some film so she could take some pictures to remember her first day of school. She put her favorite book, the secret garden, in her backpack as well and zipped it up. Even though she hadn't started school yet she could already read big chapter books and spell most words if they weren't too big. She ran down the stairs to the front door where her parents were waiting. "ready to go?"

"yup" she did a thumbs up. She ran out the door and hopped into the backseat of the car. Her Dad got into the driver's seat and her Mom got into the other side. "let's go! off to school!" Vanilla said excitedly. As the car pulled out of the driveway Vanilla bounced in her seat as her Mom put in a Mariah Carey CD and the sounds of Vanilla's favorite song, Fantasy, drifted through the car. Vanilla and her Mom sang along with the music. The song ended and car was silent except for the radio playing the other songs on the CD and the exited tapping of Vanilla's feet on the seat. Suddenly, Vanilla heard a screech and turned her head just in time to see a truck coming right at them. her eyes widened and everything went black.


	3. Chapter 3

chapter 2

disclaimer: I do not own death note

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Vanilla opened her eyes. She was lying on the street surrounded by broken glass. She turned her head to see her parents car and the truck that had hit them burst into flames. The front of the car were her parents were sitting was completely crushed. Vanilla had somehow managed to avoid any injury other than a few scrapes and cuts on her arms and legs. 'are they...dead?' the thought caused tears to well up in her eyes. She jolted up into a sitting position when she heard sirens.

'the police' she thought. she couldn't see them but she could hear the sound getting closer. 'if they find me they will take me to some old dirty orphanage. then everyone will know I'm an orphan now! I don't want to go to an orphanage!' She looked around quickly and saw her backpack just a few feet away from her. She ran over and picked it up, slinging it over her shoulders and running around to hide behind a corner. She watched as the police cars and ambulances came around the corner a moment later. She watched as they tried to get through the wreckage. No more than a second later the car exploded.

Vanilla couldn't bear to watch anymore. she turned and ran as fast as she could, tears streaming down her face. She kept running, she didn't know where she was going she just had to get away. She lifted her hand to wipe away the tears but they kept coming. She ran into something soft and fell down. She sniffed and looked up to see an old man with white hair and a kind, gentle face.

"hello little one, are you lost?" she stared at him a minute.

'yes! yes, I have nowhere to go! please help me!' her mind said, but she couldn't make herself say it. She shook her head and stood up. She walked past the man then started running again. Her mind kept screaming at her, 'go back! go back!' but her legs wouldn't listen, they kept moving, carrying her far, far away through the streets of Tokyo. Away from her parents, away from her home, away from the kind old man, and to a destination she didn't yet know. She ran until her legs felt like jelly and her chest felt like it was on fire and her sides hurt from running. She stopped to catch her breath and looked around at her surroundings. she was in a dead end alleyway next to an apartment building. There was a fire escape on the outside of the building to her right and next to her was a big green dumpster. Vanilla suddenly felt really cold in just her little pink dress. She climbed up on some boxes that were next to the dumpster, she opened the lid and looked inside. It smelled horrible but she knew it was her best chance at finding something to keep her warm without stealing. She dug past lots of old food and some soggy cardboard and a shoe with a hole in the toe before she finally found something. It was an adult size black cloak with a hood, 'probably from an old Halloween costume' she thought. The bottom right corner was singed off, but other than that it was in perfect condition.

She put it on over her backpack and tied the strings to hold it in place. It was far to big for her, dragging on the ground behind her at least a few feet, and the hood covered her entire face, but it was very warm. She curled up beside the dumpster and went to sleep.

~time skip~

When she awoke the sun had already set and the alleyway she was in was particularly dark. She sat up when she heard the sound of footsteps. She saw two men push a teenager up against the wall.

"give us all your money!" one of the men said. Vanilla could see the fear in the boy's eyes

"I-I don't have any!" He put his hands up in defense. Vanilla crept silently across the back of the ally, the black cloak she was wearing made it almost impossible to see her in the thick shadows. She got close enough that she could see their faces. Carefully, she unzipped her backpack and pulled out the Polaroid camera. she made sure to turn off the flash before she took a picture of the scene. She put the camera back in her backpack and held the picture in her hand. She studied the faces of the men and the boy, making sure she would remember every detail. Eventually the men found a wallet in the boy's pocket. They took it and left the ally. A few minutes later the boy stood up and shakily left the ally.

Vanilla ran over to a part of the ally where the moonlight was bright enough to see. She dug through her backpack and pulled out her pencil case and notepad. She tore a page of of the notepad and took the glue stick out of her pencil case. She glued the picture to the corner of the page and then took out a red crayon. In her neatest handwriting, she wrote down everything about the mugging she could remember, what the two men looked like, what the teenager looked like and everything they had said. She wrote every little detail, excluding who she was, why she was in the ally, and how she got all the information. She was about to write her name but stopped.

'I can't put my name on here or they will know who I am and find me and send me to an orphanage. I need a code name, and it has to be cool' she scratched her cheek as she tried to come up with something. "ahah!" she said aloud. She grabbed an orange crayon and wrote on the empty space in the bottom right corner, '-Dragon'. satisfied with her code name, she put everything back into her backpack and zipped it up. With the paper in her hand, she ran to the police station, careful not to be seen. Once inside, she snuck past the lady at the desk, witch wasn't hard as she was asleep, and ran down the halls. She was careful to avoid all security as she made her way to the chief's office. Once inside she carefully set the paper on the desk were someone would see it. Cautiously she peeked out the door. Not seeing anyone, she put her hood up and sprinted back through the halls and out of the building into the night.


	4. Chapter 4

chapter 3

disclaimer: I do not own death note

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The next morning, Vanilla walked down the crowded streets. No one could tell that she was alone with this many people. She had stuffed the cape into her backpack so she didn't stand out too much. As she passed one of the shops, the news came on one of the TV's. She stopped when she saw pictures of the two men who had robbed the boy the night before.

"~Early this morning Arthur Brinks and Gavin Cooper were arrested and charged with theft~" Vanilla smiled slightly, knowing she was the reason the were caught.

'I actually helped the police catch a criminal, no, TWO criminals! I feel like some kind of mystery superhero!' She resisted the urge to fist pump in victory as her smile grew. But it was soon wiped away as she saw what else was on the news.

"~at 8:13 yesterday morning a pickup truck collided with another car, taking the lives of the driver of the pickup and of the small family in the other car.~" the screen showed a picture of a man, probably in his late 30's, with black hair and dark green eyes. "~the driver of the pickup truck, David Haft, had a seizure while driving and lost control of the truck.~" the picture on the screen switched to an image of Vanilla's parents. Her mother, who she looked so much like, with her tanned skin and shoulder length blonde hair and light brown eyes. And her father, with his dark brown curly hair and chocolate brown eyes and pale skin. "~the family in the other car was Hazel and Takeo Starr and their 5 year old daughter, Vanilla Starr, of whom we cannot find any pictures of.~" Vanilla stared at the television, tears welling up in her eyes.

'But I'm here! I'm not dead, I'm still alive! I'm not even hurt!' she thought. But, of course, she said nothing. She just hung her head and walked away into the crowd.

over the next few years Vanilla solved many more crimes and helped catch dozens more criminals, all while working as the mysterious Dragon. when she was 8 she started watching some karate, gymnastics and ballet classes. In almost no time she had mastered all of them and combined them together to create her own, unique fighting style. She learned to travel by rooftops to avoid being seen. She went a little ways outside of Tokyo once to get some sticks, which she tied some yellow yarn to and made her own miniature bow and arrow, witch she became quite good at. She made her home in abandoned buildings, traveling to a different location every day so she couldn't be tracked.

When she was 10 she found an old book about poisons in a dumpster. Using that, she created poisons to dip her arrows in for temporary paralysis, sleep, and itching rashes. She used them for catching criminals. The sleep and paralysis arrows were used on criminals when no one else was around so she could tie them up and call the police. The itching rash arrows were what she used when people were around the criminal or when she knew she couldn't catch them without revealing herself. As the effects lasted about a week on average, She would be able to find the criminal again by searching for someone with the rash scratching themselves a lot. Eventually the police realized this and started keeping an eye out for the symptoms of that poison to catch the criminals.

By the time Vanilla was 13 the police had improved their security so she couldn't sneak in unnoticed as easily anymore. She still could get in but in was much riskier, she found a broken laptop in the trash and repaired it. She found a criminal that was a hacker named Fumiko Conlin and instead of capturing him right away she convinced him she was on his side using the alias Ichigo Yuke, and got him to teach her how to hack computers before she called the police on him and disappeared again. After that she started hacking the police computers and leaving file folders titled 'Dragon' with the evidence on the desktop, And occasionally changing the desktop background to bad puns, like the picture of a colorful manatee with the caption 'oh, the hue-manatee' when she got bored.

When she was 16 she created a fake identity with the name Valarie Kurusaki. She got a job at a cafe called Cafe Yige-Wangba or just Yige as Vanilla and the other people who worked at the cafe called it. It was a weird name, Vanilla thought it sounded Chinese but didn't really think much of it. When she was seventeen she got her drivers license and a year later she had enough money to afford a motorcycle, which she preferred over cars. She tinkered with it and eventually converted it to battery power that could be charged by solar panels she placed on it in a way that just made them look like shiny decorative stickers. When she was 22 she finally decided to buy an apartment.


	5. Chapter 5

chapter 4

disclaimer: I do not own death note

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Vanilla parked her motorcycle in front an old dirty building that looked like it could fall apart at any moment. "Is this really the place?" she muttered to herself as she took off her helmet and let her long hair fall around her face. Her honey-brown eyes scanned the building once again. She strapped her helmet to the handlebar and got off the bike, but she lost her balance and fell when she felt something tug on her arm. She looked up to realize she had somehow tied her right hand to the handlebar with the helmet strap. "How does that even happen?" she almost yelled. She undid the helmet and examined it for a moment.

It was a black helmet and she had painted it too look like a skull. It wasn't very detailed, it was mostly just shadowing and at night it almost looked like an ordinary black helmet. She put the helmet back on the handle, this time making sure to NOT tie her hand down. As she approached the building a slightly chubby man with light brown hair and blue eyes came out of the building.

"hello miss, you must be the new resident" he said, walking up to her.

"yep, that's me, Valarie kurusaki" she held her hand out.

"Lance Golding" the man shook her hand. "that's a nice bike ya got there, I didn't even hear ya pull up, wouldn'ta known ya were here if it weren't for that huge racket ya made" he said humorously.

"hehe, sorry about that" Vanilla scratched her cheek.

"it's not a problem. Come right this way miss kurusaki-san, I'll get ya the keys to yer apartment" she followed him up to the building. She examined it again from the inside. It was really old and dusty. "here ya go miss. yer room is number 404" Lance handed her the keys.

"thank you Golding-san" she said politely, adjusting the strap of her backpack on her shoulder.

"yer welcome. See ya 'round miss kurusaki-san" he replied.

Vanilla practically bounced up the stairs. "now let's see...apartment 404, apartment 404, 404..." 20 minutes later and she still hadn't found it "I can't find it, where the hell is apartment 404?" she sighed in frustration and looked up to see...apartment 404.

"oh, there it is" she put the key in the lock and turned it. The door swung open with a loud 'creeeeeeaaakkk!' "oh yay! built in burglar alarm!" She almost giggled at her little joke and looked around the apartment. The room was small and mostly empty, There was a stove and fridge on the left wall and a couch on the right. There was a ceiling fan in the middle of the room. The floors were wooden and the wall paper was a dirty yellowish and was peeling slightly in the corner by the ceiling. She closed the door and walked to the center of the room, the floorboards creaked with every step.

She could see cobwebs in some of the corners and a layer of dust coated everything. She tossed her backpack onto the couch and a cloud of dust formed. 'ok, maybe more than a layer of dust' she walked over to the door in the left corner of the room and opened it. It was a very tiny bathroom. The sink, shower and toilet took up most of the room leaving about about 4 square feet of floor to actually walk on. It had the same wooden floor and yellow wallpaper as the main room.

She left the bathroom and went to the last door, which was directly across from the entrance. She opened the door to reveal a small bedroom with a little bed. when she sat on the bed it sounded like it could fall apart at any moment. When she layed down she noticed that the pillow was soft but the rest of the bed felt like a lumpy brick. She stood back up and examined the rest of the room. It had the same yellow wallpaper but the floor was a white carpet, or it used to be white but how it was kind of a tan color. There was a little closet that looked just big enough to fit all her stuff in. "It might be small and dirty but it's an improvement!" she said with a smile, putting her hands on her hips.


	6. Chapter 6

chapter 5

disclaimer: I do not own death note

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As soon as Vanilla finished exploring the apartment she made a quick trip to the store where she got a broom and duster to clean up. It took her about an hour to get the entire place spotless.

"finally done, I'm tired" she flopped down on the couch, this time there was no dust cloud. She pulled her hairbrush out of her backpack and ran to the only mirror in the apartment, the bathroom mirror. She brushed her hair back then used some bobby pins to make a bow out of her hair on the top of her head, leaving her messy bangs to hang in front of her face, a style that she loved and used almost every day. She looked at herself in the mirror one more time. She didn't use much makeup, just some gold eye shadow and winged eyeliner. She was wearing her favorite outfit, a black tank-top with white flowers, some blue jeans that were torn on the left knee, and some black sneakers.

She sat on the couch and dug through her backpack. She pulled out a small box and a few tools. Inside the box were a whole bunch of broken pieces of computers, cameras and other electronics. She spent 3 days tinkering with the contents of the box before she was finally done. She had 5 things that just looked like little metal cubes and a robotic spider that was only about an inch and a half long. That night she ran through the city putting 4 metal cubes in the areas between her apartment and the police station and one cube in the polices ventilation system, where it wouldn't be easily found, and putting the spider in the police station as well.

The spider was remote controlled and had a camera and microphone on it that sent directly to Vanilla's laptop, and the cubes were like antenna things that allowed her to control the spider anywhere between her apartment and the police station.

"now I can finally spy on their meeting room, or whatever it's called" Vanilla had been hacking into the police security cameras to get more information about the police's plans and to know when they were stuck on a case, but there was one room with no cameras, and that was a room that she knew they used to talk about cases a lot. She pulled her laptop out of her backpack. It was black and she had painted the top to look like a boy and a girl sitting on a hill, holding hands and looking at he stars. She smiled as she imagined that happening in real life.

'yeah right, you're way too weird for that to ever happen' a voice in the back of her head told her. She ignored it and turned on the laptop. She directed the spider into the room and hid it in a corner by the ceiling, covered in shadows, and pointed the camera to see as much of the room as possible. "this gives a whole new meaning to using a bug to spy on people" She put on her headphones as she watched people begin to enter the room and take their seats.

"there have been 52 deaths that we're aware of, and that's just in the past week." Vanilla shifted to a more comfortable position as she listened.

'I don't think I've heard of this criminal yet' She thought.

"every single on of them involved a heart attack" another voice said.

'heart attack? maybe it's a type of poison, though I don't remember one like that from my book'

"they were all criminals who were either being held in prison of wanted by the police"

'hmmm this is different' She listened intently. She saw the chief walk in and take his seat. 'I was wondering were he was. Must have had something come up' everyone in the room started arguing and Vanilla was having trouble keeping up, she was trying to write down everything that was said at the meeting. Then something caught her attention.

"if that's the case it looks as if we'll have no choice but to bring in L"

"L!?" Vanilla had heard about L from hacking the police before. 'but I thought they didn't have any way to contact L' the whole room was quiet except for a few whispers.

"but I've heard this L is extremely arrogant and only takes on cases that he's personally interested in!" someone spoke up.

She smirked at hearing this 'heh, well I take all cases possible' she thought, but she was just trying to hide the fact that she was jealous of L for stealing all the attention, even if there was no one to hear or see it.

"that's exactly right. besides we don't even know how to contact him!"

'exactly! you don't know how to contact L! but you know perfectly well that if you ask for my help I'll get the message somehow! come on!' Vanilla's face started getting red with frustration as she listened to everyone talking about L.

"L is already already on the move" a voice said. she watched as a man with his face covered by shadow walked to the front of the room. "Gentlemen, L has already begun his investigation into these incidents"

"oh, come on!" Vanilla said out loud, throwing her hands up in frustration, knocking her headphones of her head by accident. She put them back on just in time to see the screen in the front of the room turn on to show the letter L.

"greetings to all of you at the ICPO. I, am L" The almost robotic sounding voice said from the front of the room.

'A voice modifier? that's actually a good idea. maybe I could try it sometime' She thought. She tuned out the conversation in the room for a moment to think. 'If I used that I could help the police even more. Then I'd be the one the police ask for help from'

"-also I require additional cooperation from Japan's national police agency"

'damn it! I spaced out! what did he just say?'

"what, why Japan in particular?" the chief asked.

"whether the guilty party is an individual or a group, there is a strong possibility that they are Japanese, and if they're not we can be sure they're hiding in Japan"

"what is all this based on?"

"why Japan you ask? I think I'll be able to provide you with proof of it, after I directly confront the culprit"

"a direct confrontation?"

"at any rate, I would like to set up the investigation headquarters in Japan"

Vanilla closed her laptop. "I think that's enough for today, I need to get to the cafe"


	7. Chapter 7

chapter 6

disclaimer: I do not own death note

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As Vanilla was washing dishes at the cafe when she heard the news announce a world-wide broadcast. 'I have got to see this' she turned the sink off and dried her hands. She walked to the main part of the cafe and leaned against the wall as she watched the TV.

"I am Lind L. Taylor, otherwise known as L" the man on the TV says. Vanilla rolled her eyes.

'that isn't L, the man on the screen now was arrested recently, I saw last time I hacked the police computers. What is L planning?'

"criminals around the world are being murdered by a serial killer. I consider this crime to be the most atrocious act of murder in history. I will not rest until the person or persons responsible are brought to justice. Kira, I will hunt you down, I will find you." The man on screen seemed confident but Vanilla knew it was an act. she crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"Kira, I've got a pretty good idea what your motivation might be and I can guess what you hope to achieve, however, what you are doing right now is evil." The man on the screen smirked. The man sat there, not doing or saying anything else, just staring ahead at the camera. Suddenly the man collapsed. Vanilla narrowed her eyes and waited for an explanation. She knew it wasn't L, she wanted to know why he did that. The screen changed to the same white background and black L that she had seen on the screen at the police station.

"I had to test this just in case but I...I never thought it would actually happen! Kira, it seems you can kill people without having to be there in person. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't just witnessed it. Listen to me Kira, if you did indeed kill Lind L Taylor, the man who you just saw die on television, I should tell you that he was an inmate who's execution was scheduled for today, it was not me."

'I knew it'

"the police arrested him in absolute secrecy, so you wouldn't have heard about him on TV or through the internet. It appears that not even you have access to information of these types of criminals. But I assure you, L is real, I do exist. Now, try to kill me!" Vanilla's eyes widened a little at this.

'is he crazy!?' L kept taunting Kira, challenging Kira to kill him.

"well Kira, it seems you can't kill me after all. So there are some people you can't kill. You've given me a useful hint. Let me return the favor. I'll tell you something that I think You'll find interesting. Although this was announced as a worldwide broadcast, the truth is we are only broadcasting in the Kanto region of Japan. I had planned to broadcast this message around the world until I found you, but it looks like that won't be necessary, I now know where you are." Vanilla had heard enough. She turned around and went back to washing dishes.

"Megumi-chan?" Vanilla said, peeking around the corner to see her co-worker/best friend.

"yeeeees?" Meg replied, leaning back in her chair to see Vanilla, but she leaned too far and the chair fell backwards. Meg stood up and ran her hand through her short black hair. Her blue eyes flicked back to Vanilla. "what were you saying again Valarie-chan?" Vanilla felt kind of bad about lying to Meg about her name but she didn't want to take any risks.

"um, my shift just ended so you need to take over now"

"can do! see ya tomorrow Val!"

"yup, see ya!" Vanilla waved as she walked out the door. On the way back to her apartment she decided to take a detour and walk through the park. She was surprised that there was no one else there. She closed her eyes as she hummed her favorite song. Suddenly, something hit her on the top of the head and knocked her down.

"owwwww..." she sat on the ground rubbing her head. She opened her eyes trying to locate whatever had hit her on the head. A few feet away from her she saw a thin black book. 'where did that come from?' She reached over and picked it up. She turned it over to see something written in English on it. "Death Note?" She opened it and read the words inside. 'the human whose name is written in this note shall die. This note will not take effect unless the writer has the person's face in mind when writing their name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be effected.' She tossed the book on the ground. "I could have thought of a better prank" She said as she walked off and back to her apartment.


	8. Chapter 8

chapter 7

disclaimer: I do not own death note, if I did the show would probably suck.

 **I'm trying to update everyday if I can, but on my other story writers block hated me and chances are on this one it will eventually just say "nope, I'm gonna make writing this more difficult than finding Waldo, Mwahahaha!" and then I won't be able to update everyday. Luckily, I don't think it will happen anytime soon, I've already finished writing chapter 9 and I've been working on this story every free minute I have.**

* * *

It had been months since Vanilla last got any leads on the Kira case. Most of the task force had quit and eventually the remaining task force members had started meeting L in person in an unknown location so she couldn't get anymore information from them. She sighed in frustration and slammed the lid of her laptop down. "I think I need some fresh air" Vanilla left her apartment and locked the squeaky door.

As she wandered around the mall she bought a pair of earrings that looked like little cupcakes with cherries on top and a necklace that looked like a little ice-cream cone. She jumped as her phone went off in her pocket, no one really called her very often so she had forgotten she had it. She hit the button to answer it and put it up to her ear. She almost dropped the phone when Meg's loud voice came through the speaker.

"Val! where are you right now!?"

"calm down Megumi-chan. Wh-"

"How many times do I have to tell you? Call me Meg!"

"ok, Meg, I'm at the mall, what's the matter?"

"I forgot my lunch and I have classes today so I need you to bring me something!" Meg was a student at To-Oh university, which wasn't too far away from the mall Vanilla was at.

"ok, I'll get you a sandwich or something and meet you there, but I'll have to be fast I have to be at work in 20 minutes"

"Thank you so much Val, you're a life saver!"

"No problem"

Vanilla hung up and went back into the mall to find some food for her friend. It took her about 5 minutes to to get the food and get to the university, but finding Meg was a much harder task. She wandered around the campus for another 5 minutes. She passed by a tennis court, where she saw an intense looking match going on. Suddenly she was tackled and almost lost her balance.

"hey!" she turned to see a very tired looking Meg.

"there you are Val! I just ran a marathon around the campus looking for you!"

"I think that's an exaggeration-"

"shut up and give me food" Vanilla laughed as she tossed her friend a paper bag.

"what's going on down there?" She pointed to the tennis court.

"oh, thfa's fwiv vaammy awwn rvva-"

"don't talk with your mouth full, I can't understand you" Meg swallowed the bite of her sandwich before speaking again.

"That's Light Yagami and Hideki Ryuga. Other than that I dunno, they both seem pretty good at tennis though"

"yeah"

"oh! you should get to work! I'm sorry for making you bring me food, wait no I'm not, anyways just go! go! go! before you're late!" she pushed Vanilla to get her to hurry up.

"ok, ok I'm going" Vanilla laughed and got on her motorcycle.

"Welcome to yige-wangba! how may I help you?" Vanilla stood behind the counter at the cafe. She was surprised to see the two boys who had been playing tennis not long ago, Hideki Ryuga and Light Yagami, she remembered Meg saying. She knew Light was chief Yagami's son, and he came to the cafe often. 'The other guy must be a friend of Light's' she thought. She took their order and gave them their coffee, with and abnormally large amount of sweetener. As Vanilla was cleaning on of the nearby tables she heard two cellphones go off at the same time and a moment later she was almost knocked over as Yagami and Ryuga ran past her.

"what was that all about?" she mumbled to herself as she continued cleaning the tables.

* * *

 **Meg is a fun character to write, I was just gonna have her be someone that just happens to get Vanilla to be at the right place and right time but now I'm thinking I might try to have her do a lot more. She could join the task force or maybe she will accidentally do something completely awesome! tell me what you think, I need ideas to get her in the story more often!**


	9. Chapter 9

chapter 8

 **disclaimer** **: I do not own death note**

* * *

Vanilla sat on the couch in her apartment with her laptop open beside her and a piece of paper on her lap. She wasn't getting anywhere on the case but she had managed to find a way to contact L. She was going to ask to work with him to catch kira. Her laptop was loading a file that she had made so she could use a voice modifier and while that was loading she was designing a logo for 'Dragon'. She was basically copying L, a picture of her logo would be on the screen and she would speak with a robotic sounding voice, except she wouldn't be talking to him directly. Instead she was going to send a recorded message directly to his computer.

She finished the logo and recorded the message. She played it to make sure she didn't give away to much and then, with some difficulty, she hacked into L's computer and left the file, making sure it wouldn't be easy to track back to her. but still possible.

"Look out L. I may end up working with you but it's still a race to catch Kira, may the best detective win" She leaned back with her hands behind her head and smirked.

 _ **~*~ L**_

L was surprised to find a strange file titled 'Dragon' on his computer. "what's this?" he muttered, pressing his thumb to his lip.

"what is it? did you find something Ryuzaki?" Matsuda ran over to see what L had found. He gasped when he saw the file "It's dragon!" this got the attention of the rest of the task force.

"Dragon?" L looked away from the computer screen, he had never heard of dragon before.

"you haven't heard of dragon!?" Mutsuda was surprised. "He's the best detective in Japan! but he only ever solves crimes in the Tokyo area and no one has any clue who he is. He appeared about 17 years ago and has continued to solve crimes all the time since then. He used to leave papers on desks around the police station but 9 years ago we improved our security and he started hacking our computers to leave files like this one" Matsuda explained decidedly.

"but he seems to always know when we are having trouble on a case or when something is happening, it's almost scary"

"Dragon has never contacted us unless he has solved a case"

"does this mean Dragon knows who kira is?"

"maybe"

L opened the file. They were shocked to see that it wasn't like the other files Dragon left. The background was red and in the center was a black dragon wrapped around a yellowish-white flower. A robotic sounding voice came through the speakers, it sounded almost like multiple people were saying the same thing at the same time, some high pitched and others low and fuzzy.

"Hello L. I am dragon, I'm sure you've heard of me before but in the event that you haven't, I am a detective. I hide in the shadows and have always made sure that it was impossible to track me."

L leaned forward a bit and listened intently.

"I usually wouldn't contact someone this directly but this time I'll make an exception. I am not getting very far on this kira case, seeing as you, most likely unintentionally, have made it impossible to get information the way I usually do, through the Japanese task force."

"what!?"

"Although I still have ways I could get the information, I have decided to try something different. You see, I have always worked alone, but seventeen years is a long time to do the same thing so I'm offering to help you. Of course, you could completely ignore this if you want, if you don't want my help then I will continue to work alone, but the offer will still stand. If you do want my help or if you just want to contact me I'm sure you can track this message back to me."

 _ **~*~ Vanilla**_

Two days later as Vanilla was relaxing in her apartment she heard a strange sound from her computer. She sat it on her lap and put on her headphones. There was a pop-up in the middle of her screen. She clicked on it and her screen showed a black L on a white background. Vanilla smirked and turned on her voice modifier as a voice played through her headphones.

"Dragon, I have considered your offer and have decided that you may be able to help us. But, it is possible for someone to listen to our conversations this way"

"true, that is an easy feat for any hacker if you aren't careful"

"yes, it would be best to meet in person, but it could also be dangerous. I know nothing about you, you could be kira for all I know."

"though just saying it doesn't really prove anything to you, I can promise you that I am not kira nor will I try to attack you."

"Good. now as for meeting in person, how about at Heiwanotaki park at 9:00 am tomorrow."

"fine with me, there is a bench under some trees near the fountain, we can meet there"  
"alright. I'll see you then, Dragon."

"I'll be looking forward to it, L"


	10. Chapter 10

chapter 9

 **disclaimer: I do not own death note**

* * *

Vanilla looked herself over once more, she was about to meet up with the greatest detective in the world (she was still a little jealous) and she didn't want to look like she had just rolled out of bed. She had two small braids that wrapped around the rest of her hair to the back where they were joined by a pink lotus flower hair-clip. The rest of her hair was down and wavy.

She was wearing a tank-top that said 'I do not care' but instead of 'do not' there was a big picture of a donut with pink frosting and sprinkles. She had blue jean shorts that were frayed at the bottom and her usual black high tops. She also had some brown sunglasses and some light pink lipstick.

Satisfied with her outfit, she picked up her keys, swung her backpack over her shoulder and left her apartment. It was a kind of long walk to were she was meeting L but she didn't hurry, after all it was only 8, she had a whole hour. She wandered peacefully through the beautiful park. She came here to Heiwanotaki park often, it was a secluded park on the edge of Tokyo that only a handful of people knew about. Vanilla liked it because there were trees everywhere that provided shade in the summer, and people didn't come here often.

She had explored quite a bit and found a few overgrown paths that led out of the park into the woods a little bit. one of them that she had found led to a small clearing with a waterfall, Vanilla had guessed it was about 11 feet tall, falling into a crystal clear creek were the water would pool into one area before falling over the edge into another, much smaller waterfall. On some of the hottest days in summer she would swim there. In some of the deepest parts, the pool was deep enough that she couldn't touch her feet to the bottom without diving underwater.

She lost track of time while wandering around and had to run to make it on time. she headed to the center of the park were she was supposed to meet L. She neared the meeting spot only a minute and a half late. She walked around the fountain and towards the bench. She saw a man sitting there, well, crouching, but whatever. He was wearing a long sleeved white t-shirt and baggy pants. He had messy black hair and dark circles under his eyes.

'is this L?' she thought as she approached the bench. 'he's familiar, now were have I seen him before...' she stopped in front of the bench when the man looked up. Vanilla saw a flash of surprise in his eyes but it was gone a moment later.

"L" she said, not being able to think of anything better to say.

"are you dragon?" He pulled a lollipop out of his pocket. Vanilla nodded, she was at a loss for words and was slightly creeped out by the lack of emotion in his wide eyed stare. She could usually tell people's emotions at least a little bit from their eyes fairly easily, but this was different. She sat down on the bench next to him.

"umm...hi?"

"hello"

L didn't seem to notice the awkwardness that Vanilla did. They ended up talking about the kira case longer than she had thought possible, there was actually a ton of stuff she had missed bud she didn't let L know that.

"your skills are quite impressive. You could be a great help in solving this case" L said thoughtfully.

"uh, thanks"

"would you be willing to risk showing your face to the rest of the task force in order to help?"

"yeah, I did say I would help" L stood up and started walking away. "were are you going?"

"we're going to headquarters"

"we?"

"you wanted to help, right?"

"yeah" she ran to catch up to him.

"so, were is headquarters, L?"

"a hotel. And please call me Ryuzaki"

"ok"

* * *

 **That was a kind of lame ending for a chapter but whatever.**


	11. Chapter 11

chapter 10

 **Disclaimer: I do not own death note**

 **Sorry this chapter is so short**

 **This is right after light joins the task force, in case you were wondering.**

* * *

When Ryuzaki had said headquarters was at a hotel she hadn't expected this. It was huge! it was almost two times as big as her apartment, maybe more. From what she had seen hotel rooms were usually much smaller than this.

"whoa..." she breathed out silently.

"Ryuzaki! you're back! who's that?" Matsuda was talking so fast Vanilla could barley understand what he was saying.

"I'm Valarie Kurusaki" she said. "nice meet you Matsuda"

"how do you know my name!?" Matsuda looked shocked.

"she is dragon-" Vanilla interrupted Ryuzaki.

"I hacked your security cameras enough to know. Sorry about that"

"sorry doesn't-"

"I knew you wouldn't be happy about it Aizawa, but that was the easiest way for me to know when you needed help with cases"

"we didn't ask for your help!"

"please stop yelling-"

"N-" before Aizawa could say another word Light interrupted him.

"are you really Dragon? I mean, you look too young to have been dragon the whole time-" Vanilla interrupted him.

"no, I didn't take over from anyone. Yes I am only 22"

"but that would mean you've been Dragon since you were about 5."

"yup!" Everyone stared at her in shock.

"surely you must have had some help, right?"

"not really, the only kind of help I got was a few years ago when I found someone to teach me how to hack computers and stuff"

"wow, you were one bad-ass kid..." Matsuda muttered. Vanilla laughed.

"I guess that's one way of putting it. Anyway, I came here to help with the case, so why are we standing around?


	12. Chapter 12

chapter 11

 **Disclaimer: I do not own death note.**

 **well, there went my idea of updating every day, it was wishful thinking. anyways, I think I'm just gonna stick to the original plan, update whenever I finish a chapter but no more than one chapter a day, that should work. I'm also gonna try to avoid writing to many filler chapters so the story won't go on forever and I'll actually be able to finish it, because I just got a great idea for another story but I promised myself that I would only work on one story at a time, because I know if a try to write two stories I'll regret it later.**

* * *

It had been a little over a week since Vanilla had joined the task force. Most of them had gotten used to having her around but Aizawa still didn't like her very much and she really couldn't tell what Ryuzaki thought of her. Light seemed happy to have her around but she occasionally caught him glaring at her from the corner of her eye. She liked being around everyone in the task force, even Aizawa, even though she did find it slightly annoying that he kept glaring at her, she was sure he'd get used to her soon enough. Matsuda was determined to solve a riddle she had told him a few days ago. He had asked everyone else the same riddle and the rest of the task force had already solved it, but refused to tell him the answer as it was amusing to see him trying to figure it out.

"Kurusaki-san, can you please tell me the riddle again?" Matsuda asked for what seemed like the millionth time that day. Vanilla sighed.

"fine. A window cleaner is cleaning a window on the 25th floor of a skyscraper when suddenly he slips and falls. he has no safety equipment and nothing to soften his fall, yet he is not hurt. how can this be?"

"why did you have to choose such a difficult riddle..."

"it's a pretty easy riddle, you just aren't thinking hard enough" Vanilla turned back to the papers in her hands. Matsuda sulked over to a chair, still trying to solve the riddle. It was quiet for a while and then Matsuda, who was pacing back and forth trying to solve the riddle, tripped on his own feet, and lost his balance. Trying to catch himself he grabbed onto the closest thing he could find, which happened to be Light's sleeve. This caused light to lose his balance as well, toppling over and somehow knocking Ryuzaki's cake out of his hands in the process, Ryuzaki dove off his chair in an attempt to catch the cake and knocked over Aizawa. This all happened in the span of about 3 seconds, papers flew everywhere and chairs were tipped over and Mogi was cursing angrily because he ran into the corner of a coffee table. Vanilla looked at the task force, most of whom were now laying on the floor, and shook her head.

"well that was a natural disaster" she said turning back to her work.

~later~

"uh, excuse me, Light? so whats going on here?" Matsuda asked. Vanilla, light and Matsuda were going to aoyama to try to find the second Kira. Light had invited some of his friends to go with them, Vanilla guessed it was so they didn't stand out to much.

"oh, these are some of my friends from school" Light answered Matsuda's question.

"oh uh, nice to meet you" Matsuda said awkwardly.

"this is my cousin Tarou," Light gestured to Matsuda. "and his sister Yumi." He gestured to Vanilla. "It's their first time ever in tokyo and they want to see Aoyama and Roppongi, so I figured the least we could do is show them a good time" Light's friends didn't ask any questions, which slightly surprised Vanilla, seeing as Light had said that she was Matsuda's sister yet they looked nothing alike at all. "oh yeah, Tarou also told me he's looking for a girlfriend, does anyone want to volunteer?" Light added jokingly. Matsuda's face turned bright red.

"hey! I never said that!" Vanilla couldn't help but laugh.

They wandered around Aoyama for a bit, Vanilla bought a new CD and had snuck off once and got an ice cream cone, which confused everyone as no one had seen her leave the group. Vanilla walked ahead of everyone else, humming softly and eating her ice cream, when something caught her eye. Inside what looked like some kind of cafe was a girl with glasses and short black hair. She seemed to be staring right over everyone that passed by. But that wasn't what caused Vanilla to stop. Standing behind the girl was a giant skeletal creature, with what looked like bandages wrapped around it's head, covering one eye. At first she thought it was a strange decoration or something, until it moved, it looked like it was talking to the girl, who gave subtle nod to the creature before looking back out the window. No one else seemed to notice it. Vanilla snapped out of her trance as someone bumped into her, making her ice cream fall off the cone and onto the ground. she looked down at it.

"Oh! Val-uh-Yumi! I'm sorry! I can get you another ice cream cone" Matsuda apologized.

"It's alright, don't worry about it"

"if you say so..."

"c'mon, let's catch up with the rest of the group so we don't get lost" Matsuda nodded and they ran to catch up with Light and the others. Vanilla spared one last glance in the cafe, she swore she could see a small smirk on the girl's face, she stood up and the strange creature followed her.

 _'strange...'_

* * *

 **I was going through the chapter checking for misspellings and apparently i spelled disaster wrong because there was a red squiggly line under it. (why is that so fun to say? red squiggly line, red squiggly line...) sorry. Anyway, I clicked on it and my computer tried to correct it to dishwasher. so if I hadn't been paying attention Vanilla would have said "well that was a natural dishwasher" and you all would have been confused. Auto correct isn't just in texting guys! it's out to get me!**

 ***goes back and checks all chapters of the story for auto corrects***


	13. Chapter 13

chapter 12

 **disclaimer: I do not own death note**

* * *

Vanilla stared into space, unable to focus on her work. Ever since the trip to Aoyama she couldn't stop thinking about that strange creature.

 _'maybe I should tell somebody about it'_ she thought, then shook her head _'no, they'd just think I'm crazy, no one would believe that'_ she sighed and tried to get back to work but her mind kept drifting back to the creature. _'what was that thing? there was no way it could have been a costume, it looked so real!'_ She looked over everything but her mind kept wandering. _'I need to find out what that_ _was'_ Vanilla thought. _'now how do I get out of here? Ryuzaki wants me to help but i'm not going to be much help like this. And I can't rally just go up and say "hey L, I saw a monster Aoyama and now I can't think straight so can I have the day off?" because that would be more likely make him think I'm crazy and give him more reason to not let me go. I need an excuse...'_ her honey brown eyes scanned the room as she tried to come up with something believable.

She considered many things but none of them seemed like something Ryuzaki would believe. Just as she was about to give up her phone buzzed. She picked it up to see a new message

 _Hey Val, I haven't seen you in forever! I was wondering if you wanted to hang out?_  
 _-Meg_

She was about to say she was busy but then got an idea.

"Hey Ryuzaki?"

"what is it Kurusaki-san?"

"uh, My friend just asked me to hang out again and I'm afraid that if I keep making up excuses she'll get suspicious. Is it alright if I go?" Vanilla crossed her fingers. It wasn't necessarily a lie, if Meg got suspicious of something she could do a better investigation than the FBI. well, that might be an exaggeration but it is certainly difficult to hide things from her.

"hmmm, yes you may go. make sure she doesn't find out anything" Ryuzaki didn't look away from the screen.

"ok, see you later then!" Vanilla ran out of the door, texting Meg.

 _Sure! where do you want to go?_  
 _-Valarie_

She got a response almost immediately.

 _How about the park? we can decide what to do from there._  
 _-Meg_

 _Alrighty! see you there!_  
 _-Valarie_

~time skip~

She arrived at the park within a few minutes and saw Meg sitting at a picnic table.

"Meg!" she waved. Meg jumped up and tackle-hugged Vanilla.

"Val! It's so good to see you!"

"it's good to see you too. So what did you want to do?"

"I was going to let you decide" Meg said. Vanilla thought for a minute. She wanted to get more information on the monster but she didn't want Meg to know about it.

"well, I was thinking about making a costume just for fun because why not? and I want to try to make it scary, like some kind of monster. So how about we try to get the perfect design, we can do research to try to make it a scary as possible. we can even make one for you if you want" She knew it wasn't the best plan but it was the only thing she could think of to possibly figure out what she saw. And Meg loved trying to make things scarier than they were in the first place.

"That's a great idea! Let's do it!" Vanilla gave a sigh of relief that her plan had worked. Meg practically dragged Vanilla along in her excitement. They walked into the old dusty library. They collected every book on monsters, myths, urban legends, just plain old legends, and a few psychology books that Meg had grabbed.

"why do we have these?" Vanilla pointed to the psychology books.

"well, if we want to make a really scary costume, we can find out what makes something scary"

"wow, you really thought way ahead" Meg giggled and picked up a book.

"yup! now let's get workin'"

~another time skip~

Researching monsters had turned out to be a lot more fun than she had originally thought. She had read all about vampires and werewolves and was also fully prepared for the zombie Apocalypse. It had only been about an hour and a half and they had already gone through over half the books, had a debate over who would be a better looking zombie, and concocted a plan to prove once and for all that Meg's classmate, Elliot, could indeed clone himself.

"I bet you could get some good ideas from this, Val" Meg handed her a big old dusty book, which she had opened to a page about halfway through the book.

"shinigami?" She looked down the rest of the page. _'gods of death, that sounds creepy.'_ she thought as she looked over the page. _'hmmm this might just be it...but if that was a god of death then did it kill that girl it was following? and if not, are they working together? it could be possible, if it wasn't just my imagination'_ Vanilla closed the book and looked around.

"that's all the books" Meg stood up and stretched out. "I should probably get going, I've got stuff to do. It was great hanging out again!"

"yeah, I'll put the books back"

"thanks"

~yet another time skip~

Vanilla sat with her laptop on her lap, searching for more information on shinigami. She found a conversation topic on Shinigami and spirits. she was currently scrolling through it, reading all the comments.

 _(*crazymonkeymaster84*)_  
 _My dad always told me stories about gods of death. he said they were constantly battling with the gods of light for control over the world._

She found that funny somehow and almost laughed. She scrolled down through some of the other comments until something caught her eye.

 _(Keytoallrealms)_  
 _My family recently moved to a new house out in the country, it is a fairly big house from the late 1800's. When I was cleaning out the attic I found a loose floorboard and when I moved it I found an old diary with the date 1923. It seemed to be the diary of a young girl and it spoke of shinigami and some kind of notebook of death and some kind of special eyes, and there was a drawing in the back. it all seems pretty crazy and I think it was probably a prank from the last owner of the house but I'll attach some pictures of it anyway._

Vanilla looked over the pictures. The handwriting was a mess and she could only make out a few sentences but it seemed to match up with what the commenter said. She looked at the last picture. Her eyes widened and her breath caught in her throat. It was a page full of sketches, an open book, some eyes, and right in the center was a monster.

The same monster she had seen in Aoyama.


	14. Chapter 14

chapter 13

 **disclaimer: I do not own death note**

* * *

Vanilla leaned against the wall with her eyes closed, thinking. L had recently taken Misa Amane into custody under suspicion of being the second kira. Vanilla would have never even guessed that it was possible for someone like her to be a killer, and she was still uncertain, but Ryuzaki had found physical evidence against her. She crossed her arms over her chest and listened to the sound of footsteps walking past her, she didn't need to open her eyes to know it was Ryuzaki as his footsteps were much quieter and more ninja-like than the rest of the task force members. She wasn't sure when she noticed this little detail but she wasn't worried about that right now.

"Watari, has she said anything yet?"

"no, she hasn't spoken a word"

"get me a visual of her, will you?"

"are you sure?"

"yes, and quickly" Vanilla heard the rest of the task force gasp but still didn't open her eyes. She could hear Amane, she sounded terrified.

"Ryuzaki, what's the meaning of this!?" she heard someone say angrily, but she didn't bother trying to figure out who.

"I apprehended her on suspicion of being the second kira, I'm afraid this is necessary "Chances are Amane is guilty. There seems to be enough evidence to convict her but all the same"

"yes, there can be no mistake. Now we need a confession out of her. we need to know how she kills, weather she knows kira, and if so who he really is. Watari, take the necessary precautions but beyond that you're free to do whatever has to be done. Just make her speak"

"very well"

"oh, and Mr. Yagami, Light has now become our prime suspect, I'm probably going to bring him in for interrogation as well, please be prepared for that"

~a few days later~

"Ryuzaki, Amane is talking"

"Quickly, get me a visual and audio" Vanilla almost laughed at how Ryuzaki threw himself onto the couch, but held it back after considering the seriousness of the situation.

"finally after Three days of this" Vanilla stood up and walked over to were the TV was.

"I can't take it anymore, kill me!" Amane said. Vanilla froze when she looked at the TV. In the room next to Amane was that Shinigami. "kill me, please just kill me..." Vanilla heard the other members of the task force talking but she was so shocked that she couldn't pay attention to anything besides the shinigami.

 _'if that's a shinigami, then she really is the second kira! why else would it be there! it could be for some other reason, but...'_ Vanilla's thoughts trailed off as the shinigami started talking.

"Misa, do you mean..."

"yes, kill me"

"do you really mean that Misa?"

"yes, I do"

 _'from the way the other task force members are reacting I think I'm the only one who can see or hear that creature'_ Vanilla thought. She tried to say something, to tell them what she saw, but she couldn't make herself say anything. Her mouth just hung open in shock.

"oh, I can't take it anymore, kill me"

"if I do this then Light Yagami dies too, this is all his fault"

"What!?" Vanilla said out loud, causing the rest of the task force members to jump and look at her strangely. She just stared ahead at the screen, not noticing anything around her.

"you can't, no you can't, Please just kill me!" there was a pause. "fine! if you won't kill me...!"

"Watari! stop her, don't let her bite her tongue!" Watari put a cloth over misa's mouth.

"is it possible that this behavior could be contributed to Kira controlling her actions before death?" Ryuzaki wonder out loud. there was silence in the room. Then she heard the shinigami speak again.

"Misa, when this is done you'll forget everything about shinigami and the death note"

Misa shook her head.

"it's okay. The human being who you love is Light Yagami, I promise those feelings will remain"

Misa stopped shaking her head.

"so Misa, forfeit ownership of the death note, and leave everything to Light Yagami"

Misa nodded.

The edges of Vanilla's vision went foggy and then everything turned black.


	15. Chapter 15

chapter 14

 **disclaimer: I do not own death note or the song**

 **the song I chose is unknown soldier by Breaking Benjamin because I have been obsessed with the song since I found it.**

* * *

Vanilla groaned as she woke up, rubbing her head. "what happened?" she asked more to herself.

"You collapsed while we were trying to get a confession out of Amane" She heard Ryuzaki say. She almost screamed as she hadn't expected an answer. She opened her eyes and looked around. She was laying on a large hotel bed and the room was mostly empty, aside from a plate of cookies on the night table. Ryuzaki was crouched and the bed next to her, eating a slice of cake. "Cookie?" he handed her a cookie.

"thanks" she took the cookie. _'why is it so hot in here?'_ Vanilla thought as she took a bite of her cookie.

"are you alright Kurusaki-san? your face is red" Ryuzaki said through a bite of cake.

"y-yeah, I'm j-just a little h-hot" she stuttered, repressing the urge to facepalm. _'damnit, what the heck is wrong with me! I can't even talk correctly'_ she thought frustrated.

"really? it's quite cold in here actually, maybe you have a fever..." Ryuzaki reached out and put his hand on her forehead. Vanilla felt her face heat up even more.

 _'what is going on?'_ She pulled away, getting a little scared because she had no idea what was going on. Ryuzaki looked surprised for a moment but seemed to shrug it off. The room went silent, neither of them knowing what to say. Vanilla closed her eyes and tried to remember what exactly caused her to pass out. She suddenly opened her eyes and sat up straight. "The shinigami!" her sudden action surprised Ryuzaki and caused him to fall off the bed. He stood up and shot her an annoyed look before his eyes widened when he realized what she just said.

"shinigami?"

"yes! shinigami! it was there! Light Yagami is kira and Misa Amane is the second kira! or at least she was when we were questioning her..."

Ryuzaki raised an eyebrow at her. "what do you mean?"

"when she kept asking to be killed! she wasn't talking to you she was talking to the shinigami! it was in the room right next to her!"

"Valarie-chan, there is no such thing as shinigami-"

"YES! There is! there was one right there!"

"I th-"

"it told misa to get rid of something! I can't remember what it was but it must be what she uses to kill! the shinigami said she'd lose all her memories of it th-"

"KURUSAKI!" Ryuzaki yelled to get her to stop talking. "calm down. I think you should rest"

"but-"

"no. just rest for a while"

Vanilla glared at Ryuzaki laid down on the bed. He left the room and she crossed her arms and glared at the ceiling. She closed her eyes but wasn't at all tired so she turned on her orange MP3 player. She put it on shuffle and started singing along to the first song that played.

 _ **"~Borderline, dead inside, I don't mind, falling to pieces, count me in, violent, let's begin, feeding the sickness, how do I, simplify? dislocate? the enemy's on the way**_

 _ **show me what it's like to dream in black and white so I can leave this world tonight**_

 _ **full of fear, ever clear, I'll be here, fighting forever, curious, venomous, you'll find me, climbing to heaven, never mind, turn back time, you'll be fine, I will get left behind**_

 _ **show me what it's like to dream in black and white so I can leave this world tonight holding on too tight bring the breath of life so I can leave this world behind**_

 _ **it only hurts just once, they're only broken bones, hide the hate inside,**_

 _ **show me what it's like to dream in black and white so I can leave this world tonight holding on too tight bring the breath of life so I can leave this world behind~"**_

Vanilla finished singing and just stared at the ceiling. She heard Ryuzaki walking towards the room she was in. She rolled over so she facing away from the door. the door opened. Vanilla rolled over and looked at Ryuzaki with a questioning/still-angry-at-you look.

"Misa is acting strangely"

"Yeah, I'm not surprised. the shinigami said her memory would be erased so of course she was going to act strangely" She sat up, Still glaring at Ryuzaki. He narrowed his eyes.

"stop with this shinigami crap, they're not real. You're acting like a child" She was slightly surprised that he was acting so angry, he usually didn't show hardly any emotion. She crossed her arms.

"you just don't want to believe that they're real. Matsuda said that you freaked out and fell off your chair when the second kira mentioned shinigami. You're trying to deny that something with that kind of power could exist, but what other explanation is there? Kira has a shinigami on his side, it's the only way he could do this." Ryuzaki just stared wide eyed at her. She smirked. "now, go away. you wanted me to rest and I can hardly do that with you bothering me." she stood up and slammed the door, before flopping on the bed and turning her MP3 player back on.


	16. Chapter 16

chapter 15

 **Disclaimer: I do not own death note**

 **I don't know if I ever mentioned it or if it will be important, but Meg is 23 and she is learning to be a doctor. And her friends mentioned in this chapter are OC's I created for different story that I will write after I finish this one, but for now they're just random unimportant characters.**

* * *

It had been about a week since Vanilla and Ryuzaki had started their argument. The rest of the task force had no clue what they were arguing about. Ryuzaki had said "she's acting like a child" to which she replied "He's acting like an idiot". Vanilla refused to tell the rest of the task force anything about their argument in fear that someone else might think she's crazy.

Light had come to them and asked that Ryuzaki lock him up and not let him go until he was sure he wasn't Kira. Vanilla had said that Light was probably gonna have a shinigami erase his memory just like Misa had done, which caused Ryuzaki to get angry again and say shinigami aren't real. She wasn't really sure why he was getting so mad, but she was getting frustrated that he wouldn't listen to anything she said. She had eventually stormed out of the hotel they were currently using as headquarters and gone back to her apartment.

She was currently pouting and hanging upside down off the couch with her arms crossed. Her phone buzzed next to her and she glared at it. _'It better not be L'_ she thought as she grabbed the phone. She flipped it open and answered.

"hello?"

"hi Val!"

"Meg!"

"I know this is kinda short notice but do you want to come to a party tonight at 7?" Vanilla looked at the clock she had on her wall. '6:13, I think I have time. I need to get my mind off stuff anyway'

"Ok, where is it?"

~time skip~

Vanilla and Meg sat at a table outside the large house. Two of Meg's collage friends, twin sisters Carly and Harley, had decided to throw a party at their house. There was music playing inside and some people were dancing but the majority of the people there were outside, either swimming, eating, or just hanging out. Vanilla and Meg were sitting with three of Meg's friends.

Elliot, who looked to be about 19 or 20. He was tall and his hair was blue with the ends dyed black, in a faux hawk style. he had dark blue eyes and pale skin. He wore a black t-shirt and some dark blue skinny jeans.

Eric, who was 20, he was kind of shy but still seemed to be enjoying himself. He had messy blonde hair and light blue eyes and tanned skin. he wore a red button up shirt and some light brown shorts.

and Vanda, she was 22, she had long brown hair pulled into back two braids and her right eye was covered by her bangs. She had black glasses and her dark green eyes looked bored as she stared into space. She wore a dark purple hoodie and had a black skirt that reached almost to her knees.

Meg was wearing a dark green dress that reached just past her knees, and her chestnut brown hair was up in a ponytail.

Vanilla had her hair down and she was wearing a simple orange dress.

"-so what about you Valarie-chan?" Meg asked.

"what? sorry I wasn't listening..."

"Do you have a boyfriend?"

"no..." She felt her face heat up in embarrassment and she looked away.

"oh, Then is there someone you like?"

"umm..." She pictured Ryuzaki but pushed the thought out of her mind. 'what am I thinking? I hate L, he's annoying and rude and refuses to even consider what I try to tell him'

"come on there's got to be someone"

"no. there's not" Vanilla almost growled. _'I need to change topic but what to...'_

"Val-"

"Have you played that new horror game that just came out?" Vanilla held her breath hoping that would work. Meg looked at her for a minute and opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by Vanda.

"oh yeah! that game is awesome! the story is really good to" Meg looked away and Vanilla sighed in relief

 _'that was close'_

After a while Vanilla stood up. "I think I should head home, I have some stuff I need to do. see you later" She started to leave.

"hey Val! do you need a ride home?" Meg called after her. Vanilla stopped for a moment.

"uh, sure, if you don't mind..."

"oh, Don't worry Val, it's no problem!" Meg turned to her friends. "I'll see you guys later!" she said as she waved.

"Bye!"

"see ya later Meg"

"Bye-Bye Meggy!" Meg turned around stuck her tongue out at Elliot at the nickname. He just smirked. The ride in the car was mostly silent, until just a few minutes before they reached the apartment.

"so, who do you have a crush on?" Vanilla turned toward Meg with a shocked look on her face.

"Really? that again? I already answered you earlier, no one"

"I don't believe you"

"Meg-"

"Come on Val. I won't tell" Vanilla turned and looked out of the window, mumbling under her breath. "what was that?"

"why do you want to know so bad"

"Why are you so sure that you can avoid it" Meg smirked. "I'm gonna find out one way or another. Maybe I'll find your diary"

"a diary? really? that's stupid. I don't have one, and even if I did you wouldn't find anything in it and even more likely, you wouldn't even find the diary in the first place even if I did have one" Vanilla said, crossing her arms. Meg pouted.

"I hate how true that is, you could hide an elephant from the best detectives in the world if you wanted to and they would never find it. But doesn't matter, I'll figure it out" Vanilla sighed as Meg parked the car outside of her apartment.

"sometimes I wonder why we are friends, We're both so different." Vanilla mumbled.

"eh, I dunno either. But I don't think we're really opposites, maybe it's just universe magic" Vanilla raised an eyebrow.

"universe magic?"

"you never know"

"yeah, I guess..." Vanilla yawned. "well, see you later Meg" she got out of the car.

"see ya later Val!"


	17. Chapter 17

**chapter 16**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own death note**

* * *

Vanilla sighed as she twirled a pencil in her hand. _'I really miss working with the task force, but I really don't want to argue with Ryuzaki again'_ She blew a piece of hair out of her face. _'Maybe I should just go back anyway, I don't need to actually talk to him'_ She rolled over so she was hanging upside down off the side of her bed. _'that would be kind of difficult though, maybe...I could apologize? but I didn't do anything'_ she sighed again and stood up. _'I can't just sit here all day, they need my help. L might not believe me now but someday he will and then he'll listen'_

She dug through her closet and put on a white and grey striped tank top and some ripped jeans. She brushed her hair and pulled it back into two french braids. She put on her usual black high tops and looked in the mirror one more time. _'hopefully he won't stay mad at me for too long'_

~at the hotel~

"Ryuzaki?" she sat down next to him on the couch. He ignored her and continued staring at the screen. "I'm sorry. I'll stop talking about shinigami"

He glanced at her slightly but looked back at the screen, stubbornly trying to ignore her. Vanilla sighed.

"I promise. I can act like this never happened, like I don't know there's something there" then just barely above a whisper, she added "even when I do see something"

"I do not understand why you keep insisting that your little story is real, even now while you are saying you will forget about it" He finally spoke.

"I'm not saying I'm forgetting about it, I'm saying I won't talk about it anymore." She had to resist the urge to yell that she's not making it up again. He ignored her again and started talking to Light in his cell.

"Light you've only been in here for one week but I'm sure it can't be easy, are you feeling alright?" he said. Vanilla glared at Ryuzaki but didn't say anything. Light was quiet for a moment before answering. he looked up.

"yeah, I know I must look pretty bad in here with this useless pride, I suppose I'll have to get rid of it" He seemed to slightly emphasize the words 'get rid of it' and his tone sent a chill down Vanilla's spine.

 _'he must be telling his shinigami to erase his memories like it did to misa, but I can't see it now'_ it took most of her self control to not just say this out loud. She watched Light closely. Just as she thought, after a few moments Light started acting strangely. His eyes widened a little and he looked around for a moment almost as if he'd forgotten where he was, but she was sure that wasn't the case. He looked up at the camera.

"Ryuzaki, I realize that I was the one pushing for confinement and that I asked you to put me in here, but I just realized something important! This whole thing's completely pointless! because I'm not Kira, you have to get me out of here!"

The task force members gasped, but Valarie wasn't fazed. L studied her expression. _'It's like she was expecting it...37%'_ he thought. Even though he hadn't said it aloud, Ryuzaki suspected Valarie might be working with Kira. He had thought it was strange how she had contacted him so suddenly and asked to meet in person. The fact that she kept insisting shinigami were real and saying strange things made him think she was trying to lead him away from kira, hence the reason he rarely listened when she made suggestions. And because she seemed to expect both Light and Misa to act strangely. It still didn't explain why she fainted when questioning Amane though. He had done a background check on her and found that Valarie Kurusaki was an alias, but he had no clue what her real name was. He had to admit that she had done an incredible job covering up her identity, Maybe even better than him. Ryuzaki shook himself out of his thoughts and responded to Light.

"I can't do that, I promised that no matter what you said I wouldn't let you out until I am convinced you are not kira."

"Please L, I-I wasn't thinking clearly! do you really think a serial killer like kira could commit those crimes without being aware of them? if I have no memory of his crimes, I'm not him!"

"I've never been able to accept the idea that kira has been acting without self awareness all this time, but that doesn't change the fact that all the evidence points to you being kira. Since we've imprisoned you, Kira hasn't committed a single murder"

"listen, just hear me out! I swear to you I'm not lying you have to believe me, I'm not Kira! I must have been framed, that's the only explanation for this!"

Vanilla only half listened to her surroundings, as she was lost in thought. _'he lost his memories, the shinigami erased them, but only some of them. I'm certain he was talking to a shinigami but I couldn't see it, I wonder why I was only able to see Misa's shinigami? maybe because Misa is a girl? no, I doubt it.'_ she couldn't come up with a reasonable reason that she could only see Misa's shinigami. _'Maybe Light didn't have a shinigami? no, I'm sure he had one...'_

"you have to let me out we're wasting time!"

"we can't let you out yet"

Vanilla sighed, she didn't want to listen to anymore of this. The more she heard the more questions she had and she was beginning to get a headache. She silently slipped out of the room and flopped down onto a bed and stared up at the ceiling until she fell asleep.


	18. Chapter 18

chapter 17

 **Disclaimer: I do not own death note**

 **I apologize for the crazy long wait and this probably will happen again because, you know, life, school,** stuffs **, etc. Like, seriously my homeschool group is killing me. I'm supposed to be able to draw and label a map of the ENTIRE world from MEMORY by the end of the school year, and that's just geography. We people have lives you know! *looks annoyedly at teacher* school sucks. But enough of my complaining, on with the story!**

 _Vanilla shivered and reached for the blankets, but she couldn't find any on the mattress. She opened her eyes only to be met with darkness. She sat up on the edge of the bed and let her eyes adjust to the darkness. When she could finally see she examined the strangely familiar room. The bed was falling apart and the mattress was old and worn. There were no blankets or pillows either. The closet doors were falling off and the pale yellow paint in the room was peeling. She looked down and realized she was wearing a torn, dirty white nightgown. The curtains were torn and covered in holes as well. She stood up and walked to the window, pulling the curtains aside. The window was falling apart as well and some of the glass was broken. Outside was a large pond with woods behind it. She saw the sun rising behind the trees and rested her head in her hands to watch the sunrise. She watched the beautiful oranges and yellows peek out from behind the trees and the black night sky turn blue as she sighed and felt the gentle breeze blowing through the broken window._

 _She nearly fell over in surprise when the glass of the window started to repair itself as the sunlight reached it. The light flowed through the room, fixing everything. Pink blankets and pillows appeared on the bed as the wooden frame repaired itself. The closet doors were repaired and new furniture appeared as the sunlight swept through the room like a wave, making it look new again. She looked down as her nightgown turned into an orange dress that faded into pink at the bottom. The dress was long and the sleeves reached her elbows. She looked around the room one more time, finally recognizing it._

 _"My old bedroom" she smiled as she realized where she was. "so that means..." she walked over to the door, slowly turning the shining handle. She opened the door a little bit, peeking out. She opened the door all the way on looked down the familiar hallway. Walking slowly, she recalled every detail of her old house. She looked into a door on the left wall of the hallway, her parent's room. It looked the same as she remembered it, the big bed it the middle, the dresser on the right wall and the night tables on either side of the bed with an alarm clock on one of them. She turned and walked down the stairs and into the small living room. The white carpet was soft and fluffy. She ran her hand along the wall, carefully avoiding the dozens of picture frames hung all over, all the way to the other end of the room. She passed the kitchen, taking a peek inside before moving on to the dining room._

 _In the doorway of the dining room hung a beautiful bead curtain with an image of Japanese cherry blossoms on it. Vanilla pushed the beads to the side slightly and peeked in. Two people sat the table. She gasped as the two figures turned towards her. She couldn't bring herself to say anything as the people stood up. When she finally realized, Sort of, what was going on, she felt her eyes tear up. A smile came to her face as she stepped towards the figures._

 _"Mama! Papa!" she ran up to them and gave them a hug._

 _"Hello my little dragon," Her father said softly, using the nickname he had always called her._

 _"It's good to see you haven't yet forgotten us," Her mother said. Vanilla looked up at her parents._

 _"I would never forget you, no matter what" Her parents just smiled at her. Then her mother spoke again._

 _"You've made us proud, you've survived what many people couldn't and saw what others can't" Her mother stopped. Her father continued instead, saying what he wanted to._

 _"People might not always agree with you, but you must always speak the truth. Even the most bizarre of truths are still true, regardless of what others may say" Vanilla was about to say something when her mother spoke again._

 _"Now go, we won't keep you from your friends in the real world any longer." Vanilla looked around and realized they were now standing by the front door. She had no idea how they had gotten there, as she hadn't remembered moving at all. Her mother gestured to the door. Vanilla walked over to the door but turned around before opening it._

 _"Thank you" she wasn't really sure what she was thanking them for but it seemed like the right thing to say. She turned the doorknob and swung open the door. everything was white, or maybe nothing was white. All she could see was white but she couldn't see anything else, it was just a sea of whiteness if that was even a word. She took a step outside and looked back towards the house, except there was no house now. It had just disappeared. She looked around a few times and saw nothing but the white glow that seemed to be coming from everywhere. She felt almost like a kid who had gotten lost. Scared, no clue where she was and confused. She was incredibly confused. She felt a tear roll down her face, she had no clue what to do so she just dropped to the ground, no longer trying to hold back her tears._

 _She jumped when she felt a pair of arms wrap around her. She looked up and saw L. She tried to say something but no sound came out, almost as if the world had been muted. He looked down at her with a small smile and seemed to say something, but she couldn't hear what it was. He pulled her closer into the hug and suddenly she felt really tired. She closed her eyes._

Vanilla opened her eyes slowly and looked up at the ceiling of the dark room. _'that was a weird dream'._ She turned her head when she heard a series soft clicking noises from beside her.

"Ryuzaki?" He looked at her for a second but looked back at his laptop and went back to whatever he was doing.

 _'still refusing to talk to me, huh?'_ she thought. She glared at him for a second and was about to say something else but stopped herself. _'I'm tired of this argument, if I get angry it's just going to go on for longer'_ she sighed and stood up. She walked part way to the door before glancing back at L. He was watching her from the corner of his eye. Vanilla couldn't help but smirk a little at his horrible attempt at being sneaky. When he saw that he had been caught he quickly looked back at his computer. Vanilla rolled her eyes and smiled slightly as she walked out of the room. She decided to make some tea. As she was drinking it she looked up at the clock and realized it was only a few minutes past 2 A.M. _'when did I start waking up THIS early?'_ she shrugged and took another sip of her tea. She leaned against the wall and noticed how peaceful and quiet it was. She closed her eyes and relaxed, sipping on her tea every now and then. She finished her warm beverage, washing her cup and putting it away. She went back to the room, where Ryuzaki was still sitting on the bed and typing on his laptop. Walking across the room, Vanilla opened the doors that led to the balcony. She put in her earbuds and turned on her orange mp3 player, resting her arms on the railing of the balcony as she listened to music. She sighed as she felt the breeze blow her hair back a bit. She watched as two birds flew past the buildings, a feather falling from one of them down to the street below. As she watched the feather fall a new song started. Her soft voice rang through the quiet air as she sang along.

 _"I can't help but close my eyes for life_

 _And dream a different ending_

 _That when I wake, I won't be so exhausted_

 _And I will stop with my pretending_

 _That I'm fine, I'm fine if I can fool myself tonight_

 _And my lie will drown out all of yours_

 _I will not bend until I break, how much can one bruised body take?_

 _Just not enough to silence me, you're only a memory_

 _I'll scream these words 'til they come true, then I will think no more of you_

 _Look back on what I'm going through, this isn't my identity_

 _You will bleed for what your hands have done_

 _You can't outrun your ending_

 _And I'll get well long before you let yourself_

 _I may forgive you, but you never will_

 _I will not bend until I break, how much can one bruised body take?_

 _Just not enough to silence me, you're only a memory_

 _I'll scream these words 'til they come true, then I will think no more of you_

 _Look back on what I'm going through, this isn't my identity_

 _And I told you, I told you, you had no right_

 _How damaged you must be_

 _Watch you panic, it's tragic, you'll carry this for life_

 _You have my sympathy_

 _I will not bend until I break, how much can one bruised body take?_

 _Just not enough to silence me, you're only a memory_

 _I'll scream these words 'til they come true, then I will think no more of you_

 _Look back on what I'm going through, this isn't my identity_

 _You're only a memory_

 _This isn't my identity_

 _You're only a memory_

 _This isn't my identity (I will not bend)_

 _You're only a memory (I will not break)_

 _This isn't my identity (I will not bend)_

 _You're only a memory (I will not break)_

 _This isn't my identity (I will not bend)_

 _You're only a memory (I will not break)_

 _This isn't my identity (I will not bend)_

 _You're only a memory (I will not break)_

 _This isn't my identity (I will not bend)_

 _You're only a memory (I will not break)_

 _This isn't my identity"_

In the silence in between the songs, she heard someone say something.

"What song was that?"

Vanilla turned off her mp3 player and turned around. "only a memory by Icon for hire. It's one of my favorite songs" she looked up at L. He was still typing on his computer, not looking away from the screen.

"Any reason why?"

"huh?"

"Why do you like that song? does it mean something? people tend to choose songs they can relate to"

She rested her arms on the railing again, sighing.

"No particular reason, it's just a well-made song."

Ryuzaki said nothing else. Vanilla looked up at the sky. The lights and pollution of the city hid most of the stars, only a few were lucky enough to shine their light on Tokyo. Even the moon seemed dimmed. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, smiling a bit as a silent whisper escaped her lips, almost too quiet to hear.

 _"I wonder how long it will be until I feel free like a child again..."_


End file.
